JACKSON COUNTY, IN – The Lion’s Den adult shop, housed in an unimposing beige structure just off Interstate 65 in southern Indiana, has faced staunch opposition from local forces on two fronts, opposition that began before the shop had even opened its doors.Pressure from the Jackson County government, driven in turn by pressure from residents of nearby Uniontown, IN, has the store fighting lawsuits in court, and anti-porn activists in a more immediate venue – right across the parking lot.
Positioned adjacent to the Lion’s Den lot, a small group of “protestors” maintains a constant vigil, standing by to photograph and otherwise heckle customers coming in and out of the store.
Sporting signs with slogans like “No Porn in Uniontown” and “God is watching you,” the anti-porn activists take pictures of patrons and their vehicles, and then contact companies whose names appear on any commercial vehicles that show up in the Lion’s Den lot, according to reports in the Louisville-based Courier-Journal.
One anti-porn activist, retired steelworker Douglas Hoskins, said he and his cohorts “quote the Bible” to anyone who takes time to stop and argue with them.
Rodney Farrow, County Attorney for Jackson County, said that local officials didn’t become aware that an adult business was planning to open at the I-65 location until notified by some nearby residents in August of 2005. By that point, the Lion’s Den was already under construction.
Just three days prior to the Lion’s Den opening, Jackson County commissioners passed a new ordinance that required adult businesses to obtain a permit and to comply with other new regulations.
The Lion’s Den opened without the new permit and county commissioners filed a lawsuit in Jackson County Superior court alleging a violation of the new ordinance.
Michael Murray, attorney for the Lion’s Den, argued at a hearing last September that the new ordinance was unconstitutionally vague and overbroad and amounted to an illegal zoning measure enacted to suppress expression that is presumed to be covered by the First Amendment.
Both sides expect that the lawsuit will take months more to resolve and in the interim, there’s little county officials can do but wait for the next round of legal jostling.
Regardless of the lawsuit’s outcome, Hoskins told the Courier-Journal that he and his fellow anti-porn activists are determined to succeed where local government thus far has failed.
Sitting beside his friend, retired farmer Bige Doyle, pointing a finger across the parking lot at the Lion’s Den façade, Hoskins stated his resolve; “We will be here till that is gone.”
